Each of us has many character qualities.

A character quality is a habit, a usual pattern or way of thinking, speaking or acting. Most people have a mixture of positive character qualities (such as being enthusiastic, punctual, dependable, kindly or sincere) and negative qualities (such as being sarcastic, lazy, tardy or deceptive).
We have all heard the common excuse for negative character qualities: “That’s the way I am. What can I do about it? I’m simply a lazy person.” Hinduism teaches that the character we are born with in this life is the result of the sum total of our actions in previous lives. Some individuals are clearly pious from birth, others are of a mixed nature and still others are self-centered and devious. However, Hinduism also teaches that we can change the character qualities we are born with through self-reflection and self-effort, by observing and controlling how we think and act in the present, particularly by the repetition of positive thoughts and actions. The more often we express and reflect on the character quality we desire to cultivate, the stronger it will become.
Accepting the idea that we can change a negative character quality, such as laziness, is a necessary first step. Once that perspective is held, the following four-step approach to developing the op-posing positive character quality is helpful:
1. Understand the positive quality
2. Cognize its expressions
3. Realize its benefits
4. Practice its expressions
In utilizing this process, we can keep in mind the following principle from Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras: “For the repelling of unwholesome thoughts, their opposites should be cultivated. Unwholesome thoughts, such as harming someone and so forth—whether done, caused to be done, or approved, whether arising from greed, anger or infatuation, whether mild, moderate or extreme—never cease to ripen into ignorance and suffering. This is why one must cultivate their opposites.”
By Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami